I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Leidos (Glasgow, Escocia) in Jan 2018
Interview
By far the worst interview I've ever had in any company.
The interview was conducted by three individuals.
One individual was extremely rude and confrontational from the start; didn't shake my hand on introduction. He spent the whole interview making smirks and criticising any achievement that I spoke about; scoffed a couple of times. He never attempted to build rapport. This was the most senior individual at the interview and it says a lot about his failure to recognise he was a representative of the company.
Second individual feed off this and enjoyed the interaction that unfolded; when he asked technical questions he didn't seem to be interested in the reply. For example; on presenting a technical idea on the whiteboard this individual browsed his phone; glad to have the skive.
The remaining individual was more engaged and we got on great. I enjoyed his company.
From the interview I'd say the organisation uses competition between it's employees as a mechanism to get the most out of them. This was evident in the confrontational approach of the interview; it wasn't an interview, it was 'I am better than you'. This was further evident when they described the 'wars' between employees as the best part of their culture.
This was the only interview where I gave feedback to their HR department.
Based on this introduction to the company I would not work there even if they paid me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given an scenario about how planes use transponders to navigate the world please design an entity relationship model.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Leidos
Interview
First there was a phone interview and then one in person. I met the manager and two more people from the group and asked me several technical questions.
I applied online. I interviewed at Leidos in Feb 2017
Interview
Contacted initially by a chatty recruiter, who told me I'd be receiving a call from Leidos HR. Was contacted the next day by a Leidos HR rep on the U.S. West Coast, who requested my preferred time/date from a selection of dates for a telephone interview session with the hiring manager. Despite the relatively simple time/date selections, the HR rep repeatedly got this wrong, confusing time zones and mixing up times. There were about 3 or 4 e-mail exchanges before things were correct.
Once the phone interview was finally set up, it proceeded as scheduled without difficulty with two interviewers. Within a few days (I think maybe 2 days), I was surprised to receive an offer letter via e-mail. The offer was lacking detail (no benefit information, no relocation information) and weak with respect to compensation. In response to the offer, I requested benefit/relocation information and an in-person interview. With regards to the benefit information, I received a call from yet another HR representative on the other side of the U.S. (New Jersey, I think). As to my request for an in-person interview, I was told the hiring manager refused to do this, but would be happy to answer any questions I had via telephone. At this point I rejected the offer outright on the assumption that there could only be negative reasons for the manager to refuse to meet me in person.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
General technical questions about experience with various languages and tools. Nothing too complicated.